14 signs that fascism is coming... in what order to present these in a story?

[J.L.O]

@lowarlo

unbiased/unflawed

The “scientific method” itself is flawed. As soon as you put a human in to observe anything, a study is rife with issues. This is why they do double-blind studies (take the observer’s control away as much as possible) and meta studies (shove all related studies together and data-mine, to reduce human error that is higher in smaller batches). Even then, it’s not perfect.

It’s a part of why I’ve long looked at redactions and watchdog groups over studies and have accepted that bad faith actors who screw up one study are likely to be back in another study next year, without any effort to keep track of their involvement from year to year. So while I do look at outcomes of studies, I’m often skeptical of the conclusions, as it is.

When dealing with behavioral studies which produce the worst in mankind, those outcomes are just a hair more trustworthy because the observer’s evil is naturally a part of the system which created the outcome. The confusion is solely in trusting the advocacy of effectiveness for treatments–becauee no, you don’t trust things that don’t come from care for people in safe treatment of them. But the results still have solid points. It’s what makes it scary in the first place.

For example: we know from studies of nervous reactions that people really only have the bodily functions to panic for about half an hour. (At least this was the conclusion 15ish years ago that may have changed some.) That means that it doesn’t matter if we get through a study that puts people through sheer hell for an hour or so or a more safe study that takes people who are naturally panicking and try to calm them down while documenting the baseline rate of panic. Either way, the trends will show that half an hour is the norm for life-endangering panic.

It also means that people who are going through panic attack triggers may over come phobias by stubbornly outlasting the reaction In fact some of the humane treatments are exposure while reminding people that they can outlast their triggers…but they give the power to walk away to the person who is suffering. I’ve watched documentaries on therapy sessions like that.

It’s also why I choose to ride out some events myself. Can’t let a phobia get to me while I’m driving–that’s a good way to die. The ethics of such studies play no part in stopping me.

Ethics, instead, has far more to do with the value I place on life. Humans have lives of merit. Even if animals are of “lesser value”, my merit as a human demands I don’t overly mistreat animals, either. Some outcomes simply lack merit because they do not treat the subject with respect and has nothing to do with outcomes.

[Merlifan]

Because the entire base of the story, the entire idea, would be gone?

[Merlifan]

Okay… Guess I will abandon this idea then

[Merlifan]

The idea of the book is about a fake fascist dictatorship in a school to teach about the dangers of it, that’s the entire base, without that there’s no story. It’s like saying “Hunger Games but there are no Games, no post-apolalyptic country and no social inequality”

[J.L.O]

That reminds me more of Lord of the Flies. In that case, there wasn’t sufficient world-premise, at all. The setting simply bypassed what the whole world was by intentionally isolating children in a drastic scenario, and letting hell reign.

Really, that’s the quickest way to not worry about what society as a whole is doing. Find reason to isolate the kids from outside scrutiny and do what you want. That premise doesn’t take too long to set up.

Especially if you’re setting up the instigator as “teaching kind the morality of the situation” level crazy.

[FranklinBarnes]

When I did this, the twist was that it became increasingly clear how much of it was meant to be a teaching moment and how much was the student leaders becoming corrupted by their power, and it wasn’t something where I tried vehemently sticking to some list of rules for a fascist regime—I wanted it to be more organic.

I think you have a good idea, but you’re tunneling in on this very specific way of executing it and wondering why this very specific way isn’t working out. That doesn’t mean the overall premise doesn’t work, it just means you need to execute it differently.

[lowarlo]

I don’t see how that’s the case? All you would be doing is warping some of the facist warning signs to fit a school setting. What about what I said makes you beleive there won’t be a plot to center around?

Like the person above said, your idea is cool and good, but it needs a little research and reshaping. Not sticking to the straight-and-narrow of facist idealogy won’t take away from the importance of the story you’re crafting.